Five recent birds - and a butterfly

 

A breeding pair of mockingbirds are showing off at Black Oak as of late.

We are in the midst of a wonderful time of year. To witness bird migration and see it unfold between April and May is pretty amazing. This year, I have not really left Windsor --- with the price of gas I have decided to just stay a little more local. I might treat myself to a trip still to pelee though... who knows.

I typically try to go birdwatching after work - maybe at 4pm. Its not the most ideal time to go... but you take what you can get. 

I could probably list out many birds I've seen but the following made the cut for this posting.

Sunday May 10th - backyard- Orange Crowned Warbler! I turned on merlin and this songster was the first to be ID'ed!

May 10th - Scarlet Tanager along the edge of ojibway park. The road - Broadway st. cuts along the north edge of the ojibway park forest and can be surprisingly good. Its like drive through birding. 

Thursday May 7th - Golden Winged Warbler

Ojibway park (Black oak) was eerily quiet as I walked into the park but a small pocket of wablers gave looks at Cape May warbler, along with some other common warbs. This golden winged was present for a brief moment and boom. I had lost sight of it. It wasnt singing.

Bird #4 - American Woodcock during the day!

This might be the first time I've seen one, during the day-  without instantly flushing, in my many years of birding.

Bird 5 - A bunch of seasonal warblers and vireos: 

Ok - so the butterfly sighting that I mentioned in the title is pretty exciting (in my opinion). On Friday May 8th, after work at 4pm - a friend and I walked into black oak heritage park and we flushed up an orange-brown butterfly. It landed after a moment and to my amazement - it was a Harvester!!! 

I have been a butterfly watcher since 2011 - and never even imagined seeing this species in Windsor! (Ihad seen it once at the pinery many years ago).

Carnivorous Cutie - Harvester Butterfly at Black Oak

Then, the following morning (Saturday).... A second Harvester at a nearby spot!

I was quite amazed at seeing this butterfly again and I had looked closely at both photos and they seem to be two different specimens. I had a chat with chatgpt and it suggested that this sighting is not a migrant, its a local colony! I asked chatgpt about the Alder hostplant and aphids and it suggested that Oak and Hickory have suitable aphids that this butterfly can dine on as well. Both seemed to enjoy the sandy soil pathway... but this is dangerous as many bikers and dog walkers could hurt this little lepodopteric gem.

So  --- I was pretty stoked to find this butterfly and to perhaps come to realize a small colony exists here. I am finding some good birds close to home even though I will likely miss out on the premium rarities that can be found at pelee.  My time and fuel budget are keeping me closer to home this season and I'm ok with that.

Good Birding!

Dwayne

Unofficial OFO Pelee Birding , Ojibway Park Birding in Late September + New Yard Bird - Northern Mockingbird!

This weekend was a surprisingly excellent weekend of birding in Essex County. The weather was fantastic and the birding was excellent as well. On Saturday, I went to Point Pelee and it just so happened that it was the OFO (Ontario Field Ornithologists) bird weekend there. At about noon, after I had birded Delaurier and Cactus Field, someone pointed out a pair of white pelicans that were soaring over west beach of point pelee.

West beach footpath was a nice walk as usual. Black Saddlebags and Carolina Saddlebags were abundant. Monarchs constantly fluttered overhead. Singles of Eastern Comma and Question Mark butterflies, as well as a worn Spicebush Swallowtail were noted. A few warblers were seen as well as some Southbound Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers.

Sparrow field had some of the best warbler birding for the day, and some trees in the field had Cape May, Wilsons, Nashville, Blackpoll, Bay Breasted warblers easily seen. Eastern Wood Pewee, and a sleeping Common Nighthawk delighted birders as well. I had seen my first southbound blue headed vireo as well in Sparrow Field. It was actually singing/vocalizing in a deciduous tree on the outer edge of the field. On the shore next to Sparrow field, a group of 5 Sanderlings noted but soon flushed by beach walkers.

Of course, raptors were constantly flying overhead. We had nice looks at Eagles, Red Tailed and Broadwing Hawks, Coopers and Sharp Shinned hawks, Peregrine and Merlin Falcons flew overhead as well. At one point, a Merlin flew clumsily over a group of OFO birders with a fluttering woodpecker in its talons.

See below for a writeup on my walk at Ojibway today...

Turbulent Phospila - a Pinstriped Caterpillar crossing the road at PPNP

Today at Ojibway - I walked at Black Oak Heritage Park in West Windsor. I walked for a while without seeing many birds but eventually hit nice pockets of birds. At one point, I had seen about 20-30 Cedar Waxwings with about 10 or so Purple Finches! I then saw about 10 or so warblers and vireos. Some warblers go unidentified at times as I just cant figure out what they are! I had stunning views of Blue Headed Vireo and Scarlet Tanager ... which was a huge highlight. Red breasted Nuthatches were surprisingly abundant as well.  Later on at the main Ojibway Park forest - where I had met up with my wife and two kids, we ended up seeing two separate groups of warblers as well. There could have been 30-40 birds in total. Some birds seen were bay-poll warblers, American Redstart, Black throated Green, Nashville, Tennessee, and some Ruby crowned Kinglets.

I feel like I've seen many Philadelphia Vireos this year, both north and south bound. 

Good birding!

PS:  I was out on my back porch today looking out at the hedgerow behind my house. Blue Jays, European Starlings and Crows were making a rucous. At one point today, I had my binoculars and noted a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD on my back fence. I did not have my camera nearby so I attempted to digiscope the sighting with my cellphone and binoculars! I took video with my phone's camera - hoping it would increase my chances of documenting the bird.  I've included a 6 second video of my sighting!

Earth Day Birding at Point Pelee - April 22nd, 2017

Just a quick posting today. A 4 hour walk this morning at Pelee provided some decent birding. I walked from White Pine to Cactus Field over to Tilden's Trail then over to Woodland nature trail, down to Post-woods Trail, then over to the Serengeti Tree then Tram Loop Woods.

Woodland Nature trail was pretty good this morning. I was happy to see Red breasted Nuthatches, a female YBSS, my first of season Blue headed Vireo, Nashville Warbler and Black throated greeen Warblers. One rarity that was observed was a singing Tufted Titmouse!

Post woods trail was very birdy this morning with a few small flocks of warblers that included: Yellow rumped, Pine and Black throated Green warblers.

Two species that I was hoping to get but missed were:  L. Waterthrush & Lincolns Sparrow.

Seeing four warbler species + Blue headed Vireo today was pretty exciting. Its only going to get better from here!



Good Birding!

Thanksgiving Weekend Birding

Orange crowned Warbler Flitting About in the Delaurier Savannah Goldenrod

I walked West Beach of Pelee with Jeremy Bensette & Alan Wormington on Saturday. The weather was gorgeous, but overall it was quiet. My best bird might be a Red breasted Nuthatch- called out by Jeremy. I must admit that I heard the nuthatch call, but can't really distinguish between a white breasted and red breasted by their calls yet. Some birds seen include: Lincolns Sparrow, Kingfisher, Sharp/Coopers,  Bald Eagle, Turkey Vulture, Horned Grebe, House Wren, Orange and Ruby crowned Kinglets ... but not much else was seen. 

Before my west beach walk I had stopped by Delaurier which was really good just north of the parking lot. The goldenrod was crawling with Kinglets with a Blue headed Vireo and at least three Orange crowned Warblers. I must admit I was confused between Tenessee and Orange Crowned, but the "blurry" chest and Yellow undertail coverts are diagnostic. Another Lincoln's Sparrow, Eastern Phoebes, Dark eyed Juncos were also abundant along the edge of the parking lot.

Before Delaurier, I went to Road 21 on the east side of Hillman Marsh which - to my amazement - was a dry farm field completely drained of water and birds from the weekend previous.  I also really wanted to go out to Blenheim SL this weekend, but I just did not have the 3-hour round trip time resources.

Seeing the Red breasted Nuthatch was one of the days highlights as I was not expecting to see any after reading this years Winter Finch Forecast. On the way out of the park, a Red-Morph Eastern Screech Owl caught my eye!

American Snout Butterfly on Shorts' Aster - Point Pelee

A few good butterflies were seen by Alan, Jeremy and myself:

1. E Tailed Blue
2. American Snout
3. Painted Lady
4. Question Mark
5. Cabbage White
6. Orange Sulphur
7. Clouded Sulphur
8. Common Buckeye
9. Monarch
10. Pearl Crescent
11. Mourning Cloak

It would have been nice to see a southern lepidopteric overshoot... You will have to go to Blakes blog to see the Ocola Skipper seen at Rondeau.

Some decent birds have been spotted in my back yard this week. Earlier in the week, I had another tail-pumping Palm Warbler flitting about. I had a Blue-headed Vireo this morning (Sunday) which blew my mind. Another great thing about my backyard is that over the last week or two, I have seen White crowned and White throated Sparrows, and on occasion, I hear partial white crowned sparrow songs --- while sipping my morning coffee!  I also noted some Yellow bellied Sapsuckers (from randolph street) while walking today, and when I went back to go take photos, I also noted a Juv red-headed woodpecker!

Happy Thanksgiving & Good Birding!
Dwayne